


Red Hearts and Horse Shoes

by Spazzo47



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Three things Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 20:30:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14245158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spazzo47/pseuds/Spazzo47
Summary: It's Mac's first day in her new position and besides all the regular first day jitters, she faces pregnancy hormones.  Which means Will faces her pregnancy hormones.This is for Lilac Mermaids 3 things challenge.  Fair warning, these will be three hard things to spot.  But I'll tell you what things I got at the end.





	Red Hearts and Horse Shoes

“Fuck!” 

Will jolted awake not sure what happened, but he got on his feet immediately and ran to the bathroom where he heard Mac’s scream.  He looked around quickly, and seeing no people who shouldn’t be there or some kind of nuclear fallout, he gave a sigh of relief and started to walk back to bed.  Unfortunately, he heard Mac cry and he knew he had to turn around. 

“Mac?  Honey, what’s wrong?” _Don’t be pregnancy hormones, don’t be pregnancy hormones, don’t be pregnancy hormones_. 

Mac held out a small chain and cried, “It’s broke.  My grandmother gave it to me and I wore it for every big event in my life.  A kind of lucky charm.  But I got my hand tangled in it and I pulled and, now it’s ruined.”

Will looked at the anklet in her hand and thought it looked fixable.  Replace the jump ring and she’ll have a functional, hideous, monstrosity to wear around her foot.  What the fuck does she want this thing for?  He can’t take time to think about that, Mac looks about to fall apart.  Will cautiously put his arms around her, stroking her back. 

“It’s okay, honey, it’s okay.  I’m rich.  I can get you a new one.”  Preferably one that doesn’t look like a jeweler sprayed gold paint on a miniature necklace like Neal started spraying his coffee scented cologne munificently on himself.  Will likes coffee as much as the next person, but he really cannot believe that even Neal would believe the coffee scent would attract the opposite sex. 

Mac pushed away from Will and gave him a serious look, forcing him to fight to keep a straight face.  “You don’t get it, do you?  That’s the anklet I wore when I interviewed to get into Cambridge.  I had it on when I moved to the States without a job.  I took it with me to the Middle East.  I even had it on when I met you.  My first real assignment as a journalist.  I wore it to our wedding.”

As Mac continued her list, Will hoped his face gave a look of understanding and empathy.  No matter how hard he tried, he didn’t remember her wearing that… ever actually.  And he would have remembered something that ugly hanging anywhere around Mac.  As he thought back, he realized she hadn’t stopped talking. 

“And now I have to go to work, in a brand-new position that we both know I’m not ready for, I still have to learn how to be a wife, and I have to tell Pruitt I’m pregnant and I’m going to become fat.  And you don’t date fat women.  You’re going to hate being married to one.”

“Okay, Mac.  That’s enough.  We _don’t_ both know that you’re not ready for the presidency.  I happen to believe that you will be the best president in the history of ACN.  And you’ll go to work sober, which automatically makes you better at it than Charlie.”

This of course forced a new wail from Mac, “CHARLIE!  He’s dead, Will!”

Damn it.  He really expected her to say he has to say that because she’s his wife.  And then he’d have to cut her off before she started preemptively calling herself his soon to be fat wife.  But she went with Charlie.  Charlie died two weeks ago and neither of them had really gotten over it.  Every once in a while, they will see something that reminds them of him and need to take a second.  Last week they saw an orange and red bowtie that Will thought looked like fall colors.  Mac looked at it and said, “Beautiful fall colors, just like him.”  Will couldn’t resist, “Charlie wasn’t orange or red.  He was Caucasian.”  That earned Will a slap in the chest.  They got through it because they’ve had each other.  He put his arms around her again and let her cry in the ice blue t-shirt she slept in last night. 

He sighed heavily realizing that wit wouldn’t get her through this time, so he tried for soothing.  “And you’re a wonderful wife.  Already.  A couple months in and I have no complaints.”  He hoped that she wouldn’t probe too far on that.  He came home from the studio the other night and found her making dinner.  He didn’t know exactly what she did to the little red potatoes, but they tasted a little like he imagined the potatoes in the movie _The Martian_ tasted after being fertilized by human shit.

When Mac didn’t say anything, Will continued, “As for Pruitt, if he so much as looks at you cross-eyed for being pregnant, I’ll have a suit against him before he can fucking blink.  This kid may be his undoing.  And when you’re heavy with my baby, I’ll still be your husband and you’ll still be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met in real life.”  Will pushed slightly from her and looked her in the eye.  Finally, he kissed her slowly.

When they broke apart, Will felt a wave of relief for diffusing that.  “You know you’re full of shit, don’t you?”  Fuck!  What did he do? 

“Well, you knew that when you married me.”  Will gave her a grin and kissed her again.  “Come on, Madame President, we need to get you to work.”

“Fine, but don’t think I don’t know what you were thinking.”

Will felt panicked all of a sudden.  “I wasn’t thinking anything.  You know I can’t think before my first three espresso mochas.”

Mac smiled, “You drink black coffee, I drink the espresso.”

_Please don’t realize you can’t drink coffee.  Please don’t realize you can’t drink coffee._

Her cry was piercing as she realized what she would have to give up for a few months in anticipation of their first born.  Will on the other hand would have to issue an edict barring all coffee products from the newsroom until small child McAvoy cried his or her first cry. 

When Will arrived home after the show, he called Mac who had tried to make... fish and chips, he thought.  The house had the repugnant aroma of fish, but he wondered about the fries since she didn’t actually deep fry them and they just didn’t look… cooked enough.  He called her name and when she came running to give him a kiss… on the cheek… something that he only hoped would pass with time, he smiled at her and then gave her a real kiss, one where he bent her back hoping she understood what he wanted to do later.  She smiled back at him. 

“I have something for you.”

Mac looked down towards a piece of his anatomy.  “I bet you do.”

“I’ll have that for you later.  But here.”  Will took a jewelry box out of his pocket and gave it to Mac.  She smiled brightly as she opened her gift.  She looked at it stunned. 

“Will?”

“I got your anklet fixed.  You’re good luck charm?”

Mac started laughing, confusing Will.  “I was wrong this morning.  I thought this was my grandmother’s anklet, but God, no.  Not this hideous thing.”

Will looked down at her foot and saw a different thin gold chain with what looked like charms hanging off it.   Will ushered her to the couch, hopeful that she was done cooking and that when they tried to eat, they’d find their food cold and have to get take out.  He sat them down on the couch and put her feet in his lap so he could investigate the jewelry.  He took the chain off and inspected it.  He found a charm in the shape of a seashell for her first trip to the ocean, a cross for her first Communion, a red heart and a diamond horseshoe from her grandmother who wished her a life full of love and happiness, a bowl of fruit that she said she insisted her mom get her before the five year version of herself screamed bloody murder in the store, and a blue eyeball to cheer her up when she got glasses. 

As Mac told the stories behind each charm, Will massaged her feet and laughed.  He decided to get her another charm for the anklet, a baby or his initials.  Probably both.  Jenna can figure out how to do that.  And if the baby is a girl, she’ll need one too.  He’ll make sure hers starts with the red heart and horseshoe. 

**Author's Note:**

> Three Things:  
> ) A lost or broken good luck charm.  
> 2) Someone spraying their coffee  
> 3) Beautiful fall colours.
> 
> How'd you do? I also challenged myself to not write Will as a jerk and to write fluff. I may have succeeded.


End file.
